After four years, Adam's condition stabilised. His ethereal form was denser, and he no longer looked on the verge of dissipating. However, no matter what happened around him, he remained unresponsive.
Julius sighed and sat cross-legged to cultivate while listening to the talkative Arun. During the past four years, he diligently trained every day and made immense progress.
His Dan Tian's appearance changed tremendously from its previous state. After absorbing and nourishing it with life energy for a few months, he suddenly felt its walls crumble, startling him in the process. However, the wall shards merged with his liquid essence, making it more potent. Then, new walls rose to cover the sphere. Only this time, they were much thicker.
He went through this cycle three times, reaching the late stage of the Qi Gathering Realm. Sadly, the process was extremely slow, and he felt as if something was missing for his cultivation speed to soar. Unfortunately, he had no one to guide him on this path.
"And you, Julius, why are you going to Alkimia Al-Nur?" Arun asked with interest.
"Same as you. I want to enroll at the college." Julius answered absentmindedly, focusing on his cultivation.
"You know that you need to be a noble and pay to enroll, right? I don't want to disrespect you or anything, but you don't seem to fill any conditions." Arun said hesitatingly, not wanting to hurt the feelings of his new companion.
In response, Julius took out a small and intricately carved wooden box and showed its contents to Arun. Only two items were inside: a paper and a brooch.
The paper's title was Act of Birth of Julius Riverwood, son of Lucius Riverwood, and the brooch represented the Riverwood house's coat of arms.
"you, you, you are a noble too? Why do you look poorer than a commoner? Why were you traveling alone?" Arun asked, shocked by the revelation.
As the proud son of one of the wealthiest nobles of his country, he had trouble associating nobles with anything else than opulence. Look at him, at only twelve, he already had his own carriage and bodyguards.
"Officially, yes. I used all my money to come from the Belloria kingdom. I have nothing left." Julius looked at his clothes and smiled wryly.
He indeed looked more like a beggar than a noble. His shirt seemed to have seen better days, and holes could be seen in his pants and shoes. After all, every single coin he earned was saved to pay the captain, with none to spare to buy clothes.
"As for why I'm alone... My big brother will join me soon." He continued, unwilling to talk about his past.
"Wow, the Belloria kingdom from the western part of the central continent? I don't know how you didn't go crazy traveling alone from so far. I only came from the Agnivana kingdom, not far from here and am already bored to death daily." Arun felt genuinely impressed by Julius' mental resilience and charisma. Despite his shabby appearance, he still exuded an aura of vitality and maturity.
They kept speaking while traveling until sunset. At that time, the two knights stopped the carriage on the side of the road, took a pot from the carriage and started to cook their dinner.
Arun and Julius jumped down from the carriage and went for a short walk to stretch their legs after staying seated for the whole day when they suddenly saw another carriage approaching.
This carriage looked similar in style and as luxurious as Arun's. However, he noticed his talkative new friend's face pale.
"Julius, run to the carriage, or we'll be doomed, you hear me? Doomed." Arun sprinted as fast as he could while screaming in fear, followed effortlessly by Julius.
After two minutes of sprinting, they were back to the carriage.
"Idiots...Huff.. put everything back inside and move... Huff... NOW!" He ordered his guards in panic while panting heavily.
Then he turned to look at Julius to see if he managed to follow him, only to see him no different than before. Not a single drop of sweat could be seen on his body.
"What is happening?" Julius questioned, intrigued by what could cause such a proud young man to flee with his tail between his legs.
"The devil... The devil is behind us!" He screamed, disappearing inside the carriage and hiding under the seats.
The two guards looked at the scene perplexed, unsure if they had to follow their young master's orders or keep cooking dinner. However, they soon saw what caused him to be so panicked.
They looked at each other seriously... And suddenly burst into laughter. They finally could avenge themselves without lifting a finger, literally.
"Wow, the wind howls so loudly today. Did someone speak? I'm afraid I didn't hear anything." Idiot one said loud enough for Arun to hear him.
"Ahhhh, I swear you will pay for this idiot!" Arun said in anger and disbelief.
In the meantime, the other carriage reached them, and a young lady kicked its door wide open. She seemed to be around their age as well and wore the same style of clothing Arun did. She probably came from the same kingdom.
"Arun, I know this is your carriage. Come out!" The cute young girl said with an innocent voice. She had long dark brown hair and green eyes. Despite her youthful appearance, she was promised to become a beauty in the future.
Hearing her voice, Arun gestured at Julius in despair, trying to make him understand that this person was dangerous.
"Hum... Miss, you might be mistaken. This is my carriage?" Julius said, unsure about how he ended up in the middle of this mess.
"Oh, I see that a carriage is less valuable than decent clothing nowadays. Do you take me for a fool?" The girl said with a smirk, clearly too smart to fall for such stupid excuses.
"Arun, you have three seconds to come greet me. If you don't..." She didn't end her sentence, letting it hover ominously.
Hearing her, Arun immediately came out of the carriage's seat and ran towards them.
"Hum... Julius, may I introduce you to my fiancé, Asha." He said with a forced smile and tears in his eyes.